Engr Delwar Murder: His colleague killed him for obstructing bribery

Delwar Hossain, then executive engineer of Gazipur City Corporation, was killed last year over a disagreement with his colleague Mohammad Selim over the latter's illegal activities, a police probe has found.

Investigation Officer Sheikh Mofizul Islam, also an inspector of Turag Police Station, filed the charge sheet in the murder case of Delwar with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka on May 3.

The IO in the charge sheet described how Delwar, 45, was brutally killed in a planned way by Selim, assistant engineer of the city corporation, and his two accomplices -- Helal Howlader and Habibur Rahman Khan.

According to the probe report, Selim alias Anis Howlader used to take illegal benefits from different contractors, but Delwar opposed such illegal activities.

"Selim would frequently harass most of the staffers at the office. That's why the staffers disliked Selim and loved Delwar. This led to a feud between Selim and Delwar," the report added.

Selim was served with a show cause notice over a forgery in 2018 when he was at the Konabari zonal office of the city corporation. He thought Delwar was behind the notice and became aggrieved.

"In September 2019, Delwar was attached to Nagar Bhaban. At that time, Selim wanted to take over as the executive engineer of Gazipur City Corporation. But Delwar was transferred to the city corporation as an executive engineer on February 26 last year. Selim was very displeased about this," the charge sheet said.

On May 5 last year, Selim had a quarrel with Delwar. He then decided to kill his colleague and hired Helal Howlader alias Horila Ghorami and Habibur Rahman Khan, a microbus driver.

In the morning of May 11, Selim along with the two went to Delwar's home in the capital's Mirpur by a microbus.

To get Delwar out of his home, they used a trick. They gave a rickshaw-puller Tk 100 to call Delwar saying that he needed to collect a parcel.

"Delwar then came out of the home and saw a microbus waiting there. Selim told him that he hired the microbus to go to office. Delwar boarded the microbus in good faith," the probe report said.

As the vehicle reached Rupnagar Beribadh area, Helal strangled Delwar with a rope while Selim grabbing the victim's legs. After killing the executive engineer, they dumped the body in an empty plot of Uttara Sector-17 near Beribadh, the IO said.

They also threw Delwar's cellphone in a lake in Dishari area.

Police on the same day recovered the body from Beribadh around 4:00pm.

On May 12, victim's wife Khodeja Akhter identified the body at the morgue of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College.

Khodeja filed the murder case with Turag Police Station that day, accusing some unidentified people.

Police later arrested the three. They made confessional statements to magistrates on different dates.

The three are now behind bars.

In the charge sheet, 33 people have been named as prosecution witnesses.